Performance Arts References in Turtledove's Work
Like many authors, Harry Turtledove references the broad film, television, broadcast radio, live theater and their creators (or have had) on society. Sometimes, these references can give a reader insight into how a particular timeline differs from OTL. Other times, they are more incidental and designed to invoke a specific era or culture. What follows is a list of such references which can be found in Turtledove's body of work, organized by the musician, song-writer, or performer. Note: As many homages are subtle, they can easily escape the notice of any given reader. Therefore we strongly encourage anyone who has found, or believes he has found, an homage not already on this list, or by an author not represented, to add it. Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. One of the continuing themes in the Hitchhiker's Guide was the number "42" which was the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything" and the different characters searching for "The Question" this was the answer to. In "Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" the Omniscient Narrator first describes that there are any number of space drives and then corrects himself and says that there are forty-two, an allusion to Adam's work. John Tucker Battle , or Minerva, depending on the timeline.]]John Tucker Battle wrote the screenplay of Invaders from Mars, a 1953 b-movie about the invasion of a California town by aliens with obvious zippers in their anatomy, which can only be thwarted by the cleverness of a small boy. In the universe of A World of Difference, where Mars is supplanted in the solar system by Minerva, there was a movie entitled Invaders from Minerva. The broad description given suggests it was similar to its OTL counterpart. The only difference is that it is said to be from the late 1950s rather than 1953, although this could be an incorrect estimate on the characters' part.A World of Difference, p. 236. Samuel Beckett ," either.]]Samuel Beckett was the author of the play Waiting for Godot. The short story "We Haven't Got There Yet" ends with its protagonist, William Shakespeare, about to attend a performance of Waiting for Godot, wondering who Godot is and who might be waiting for him. Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born 1926) is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. The Producers is a musical adapted by Brooks from his 1968 film of the same name. The story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling interests in a Broadway flop called Springtime for Hitler. In Turtledove's In the Presence of Mine Enemies where Germany won World War II, there is a similar musical about a theater owner who books a terrible play about Churchill and Stalin becoming a smash hit.In the Presence of Mine Enemies, pg. 139. James Cameron In "Before the Beginning" we learn that James Cameron's [[Titanic (1997 film)|1997 film Titanic]] is more interesting than time-viewer recordings of the sinking of the actual ship. Casablanca Casablanca (1942) is an American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, from a screenplay which went through several revisions by various writers. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. It is set in the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca, Morocco during World War II, and focuses on a man's conflict between (in the words of one character) "love and virtue": He must choose between his love for a woman and doing the right thing, helping her and her husband, a Czechoslovakian Resistance leader, to escape from Casablanca to Portugal to continue his fight against the Nazis. The films is full of frequently quoted and misquoted lines, which have permeated pop culture. Perhaps the most famous is "Play it again, Sam," most often attributed to Bogart. In fact, Bergman speaks the line and it is simply "Play it, Sam." The inaccuracy of the quote has often been used as comedy fodder. In The Two Georges Colonel Thomas Bushell walks into the lounge of the Empire Builder and hears his adjutant Samuel Stanley playing "I Remember Your Name" on the piano. Stanley abruptly stops when he sees Bushell since it was his and Irene's (his ex-wife) song but Bushell tells him to "... play it, Sam".The Two Georges, pgs. 164-165, MPB. Later in the novel, another character makes an allusion to another Bogart picture. In The Man With the Iron Heart, the Casablanca line "round up the usual suspects" is quoted by NKVD agent Vladimir Bokov at one point. Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work in the United States during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. Chaplin is referenced several times throughout Turtledove's work. In West and East, for example, Theo Hossbach returns to his encampment in an uproar, and watches two panzer crewmen bounce off each other as though they were doing slapstick in a Chaplin film.West and East, pg. 84, HC. In Two Fronts, Peggy Druce reflects that Chaplin, in contrast to Adolf Hitler, grew his toothbrush mustache for comic effect.Two Fronts, Chapter 10. Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Tom Corbett was the main character in a series of Tom Corbett — Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, coloring books, punch-out books and View-Master reels in the 1950s. Harry Turtledove attended LACon IV, the 2006 Worldcon which would have had Frankie Thomas, Jr. the actor who portrayed Corbett as a guest. This event had Mike Resnick commission a series of space cadet stories for an anthology and led Turtledove to write "Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" as a parody of the show. In the novel Joe Steele, Charlie Sullivan's son Pat was an enthusiastic watcher of the television program Tim Craddock - Space Cadet, a clear parody name of Tom Corbett.Joe Steele, pg. 388, HC. Beverley Cross Beverley Cross wrote the screenplay for the 1965 film Genghis Khan, starring Omar Sharif as Temujin, Genghis Khan. This film features in the short story "The Barbecue, the Movie, & Other Unfortunately Not So Relevant Material." In the story, the movie, which is imperfectly faithful to known details of Khan's biography, is viewed by a historian from the distant future, which presumably will lead to inaccurate knowledge of Khan's life in the historian's time. Walt Disney Walt Disney (1901-1966) was an American cartoonist, movie producer and businessman who revolutionized the animated film and the theme park industry. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are some of his more famous mascots. In the Worldwar series, two Lizards raised by humans are named Mickey and Donald, an obvious reference, which even causes some characters in the series to chuckle. In an unrelated chapter of Down to Earth, the POV character Dr. Reuven Russie watches a Donald Duck cartoon in a cinema and thinks it's just about the funniest thing he's ever seen. In The Disunited States of America, Beckie Royer is a fan of The Breeze in the Birches, the novel which inspired Mr. Frog's Crazy Ride at Mortimer's World.The Disunited States of America, p. 228 This is a play on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney's theme parks, based on Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Mortimer Mouse was Disney's working name for the character that became Mickey; he decided that sounded too highbrow and changed it to a more "street" name, later reassigning the name Mortimer to a high-faluting bully who bothers Mickey in some of the early cartoons. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is also referenced in A World of Difference.A World of Difference, p. 209. John Fletcher John Fletcher was a younger contemporary of William Shakespeare and is widely believed, though not known, to have collaborated with the Bard on several of his final plays (namely Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and Cardenio). Fletcher wrote the play Bonduca, which tells the story of Boudicca. Most of the lines found in the fictional Shakespearean play Boudicca are taken from Bonduca; however, the play itself bears only a distant resemblance to the play Turtledove invented for Ruled Britannia. Also, lines are lifted from Shakespeare's Henry VIII to pad out both Boudicca and King Philip; as stated above, bardolaters have long suspected that Fletcher had a hand in Henry VIII. Matt Groening Matt Groening is the creator of the successful cartoon The Simpsons. Simpson was also the middle name of General Ulysses S. Grant. In the The War Between the Provinces series, a Grant analog is a major character. The character is named Bart in honor of Bart Simpson. (Grant's first name, Ulysses, is the Latinized version of Odysseus, who was of course immortalized in Homer's Odyssey. However, Turtledove has not pursued a pun based on Homer Simpson.) Christopher Guest goes up to eleven, man]] Christopher Guest is most widely known for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that feature a repertory-like ensemble cast. The first of these, This Is Spinal Tap, had Guest playing Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist of the band whose amplifier control knobs all have the highest setting of eleven. When Yellowstone National Park was hit by a series of magnitude 7.0 earthquakes just before the supervolcano erupted, Kelly Birnbaum wondered what a full eruption would feel like and thought "goes up to eleven, man" in a direct reference to Spinal Tap.Eruption, pg. 145. Jim Henson ]]Jim Henson (1936-1990) was an American cartoonist and filmmaker, best known for his innovation of combining marionettes and puppets into "Muppets," designed to be especially flexible and full of emotion. Henson's signature character was Kermit the Frog. In Turtledove's The War Between the Provinces series, the character based on the Emperor of France is named Kermit, an allusion to the humorous English custom of referring to the French as the Frogs. In the short story "The Mammyth", the main character, Tundra Dawn, is referred to as a "Muppetoid" and is apparently based on Prairie Dawn. Her two companions on a quest for the possibly mythical Mammyth are inspired by Big Bird and Grover. All are Henson (or associates') creations. ''King Kong'' King Kong is a 1933 American fantasy monster adventure film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was from an idea conceived by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic, prehistoric, island-dwelling ape called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. Kong is distinguished for its stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and its musical score by Max Steiner. It has been remade twice: in 1976 and in 2005. Many sources cite King Kong as one of Adolf Hitler's two favorite films (the other being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). In Last Orders, Aristide Demange and Louis Mirouze discuss King Kong. Mirouze mentions how the biplane fighters in the film had been as good as anybody's in 1933 but wouldn't last ten minutes against modern aircraft.Last Orders, pgs. 152-153, HC. Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. Composed of thin Englishman Stan Laurel (born Arthur Jefferson, 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) and fat American Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957), they became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy. In West and East, Sgt. Albert Dieselhorst tells his superior, Hans-Ulrich Rudel: "Well, sir, here's another fine mess you got me into". Rudel recognizes the line as coming from a Laurel and Hardy movie, responds "As long as we keep getting out of them."West and East, pg. 202, HC. Richard Levinson and William Link or Mrs. Peterfalvy.]]Richard Levinson and William Link were a pair of mid-20th century American television writers. They created, among other programs, the crime drama Columbo, and correspondingly created the title character as well. This character provided the inspiration for the character Garanpo in Homeward Bound. Also, a TV Reporter in Supervolcano: Eruption mispronounces the name of Maria Peterfalvy as "Mrs. Peterfalk" , an allusion to Peter Falk the actor who played Columbo. Christopher Marlowe ]]Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is a major character in Ruled Britannia. He is seen as both a friend and rival of William Shakespeare as well as a co-conspirator in the book's main plot point, the plot to restore the imprisoned Queen Elizabeth to the throne of England. Marlowe, who lived several years longer in this timeline than in OTL, is on some level resentful of Shakespeare's having eclipsed his fame as London's greatest playwright. This theme is brought up several times throughout the novel. Marlowe is seen as particularly jealous of Prince of Denmark (i.e., Hamlet) which he believed to have outclassed anything in his own canon and which set him on a mission to write a greater play still--the result being a ficticious play about the legendary doomed lovers Tristan and Isolde, of ancient British lore. He appears to have failed to have one-upped Hamlet with the play. Marlowe's literary influence is felt in the novel. At one point a minor character unintentionally identifies Marlowe to Lope de Vega by mentioning that a fleeing man had made an unusual comment--which, on being recited verbatim, is in fact a lengthy excerpt from Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. (A line from the same excerpt is invoked by Peggy Druce under very different circumstances in West and East; however, Peggy is unable to recall the author who wrote it. Likewise Vanessa Ferguson recalls the line but not the author after the supervolcano erupts, covering Denver in ash.Eruption, pg. 151.) Otherwise in Ruled Britannia, Marlowe's (fictional) play Cambyses, King of Persia is performed by Lord Westmorland's Men one day, and a number of lines were lifted from Tamburlaine the Great to pad out Shakespeare's fictional play Boudicca. Marlowe is also mentioned, posthumously, in "We Haven't Got There Yet." Shakespeare is reminded of "poor dead Kit" when a performance of Tom Stoppard's time-displace play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead makes him think that even Dr. Faustus's situation was better than that of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Faustus chose damnation; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were predestined for it, because they were at the mercy of an author who was pleased to make them too dim and dull to avoid it. The Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers - Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Margaret Dumont was the comic foil to Groucho in seven of the Marx Brothers films. In All Fall Down, when the salvage crew which includes Vanessa Ferguson arrives in Fredonia, Kansas, she begins to sing "Hail, Hail, Freedonia" from the Marxes' Duck Soup, much to the annoyance of her teammates.All Fall Down, pg. 204, HC. In The Big Switch Pete McGill mocks communism by attributing it to Groucho Marx rather than Karl Marx.The Big Switch, p. 168. In Southern Victory there is a popular vaudeville troupe called The Engels Brothers who make a few brief appearances in different volumes. Their name is a metaphysical in-joke, as Friedrich Engels was the writing partner of Karl Marx. Anne Nichols Anne Nichols (November 26, 1891 – September 15, 1966) was an American playwright. Among her most famous works was the farce Abie's Irish Rose, which centers on the marriage of a Jewish man to an Irish woman. In the novel Joe Steele, Jewish-American Esther Sullivan muses to her Irish-American husband Charlie that they are right out of Abie's Irish Rose, except with the genders reversed.Joe Steele, pg. 186. Dudley Nichols Dudley Nichols wrote the screenplay of The Bells of St. Mary's, which features in The Man With the Iron Heart. Trey Parker and Matt Stone Trey Parker (b. 1969) and Matt Stone (b. 1971) are Colorado cartoonists and comic actors in television and cinema, and also writers of theatrical plays. They are best known for their animated series South Park, first aired in 1997. Justin Kloster, hero of two Turtledove stories, is by his own admission a South Park fan. Rambo movies Rambo is a series of four films (1982, 1986, 1988, 2008) about an American soldier named John James Rambo (born July 6, 1947) who fights in the Vietnam War, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and other conflicts where he protects the downtrodden and destroys evil in an over-the-top, larger-than-life manner. The first movie was loosely based the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, and the later films all created from original stories. The slang term "Rambo" has entered the language to describe a person who is reckless, disregards orders, uses violence to solve problems, enters dangerous situations alone, and is exceptionally tough and aggressive. In "Black Tulip", Vladimir, a Soviet soldier in Afghanistan (the setting of Rambo's third movie in 1988), says "You see Rambo out there? I sure don't," to which his comrade Sergei replies "We've got our own Ramboviki right here."Redshift, p. 208. Incidentally, the collection Redshift which features this story, and the follow-up collection, Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy which features "Coming Across", also contain stories by Rambo's creator David Morrell. Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons thumb|[[Crosstime Traffic (company)|Crosstime Traffic discovered an alternate where the Soviet Union was supplanted by "Pottsylvania."]]Rocket "Rocky" Jay Squirrel and Bullwinkle Jay Moose were two anthropomorphic animal everymen who appeared in a series of television cartoons in the early 1960s, where the duo repeatedly went on exotic adventures, faced off against two bumbling enemy spies, made insightful jokes about current events, and broke the fourth wall. In The Valley-Westside War, two fugitive-hunting bloodhounds are named Rocky and Bullwinkle. In Supervolcano: All Fall Down, Rob Ferguson was out hunting for moose and reflected on some of the stranger things he had eaten since the Yellowstone Supervolcano had erupted, such as squirrels and robins. He then thought about the DayGlo orange vest he was wearing to warn other hunters that he wasn't a moose or squirrel or any other refugee from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.All Fall Down, pg. 316, HC. Robert Rodat to "Earn it." So as a much older man he made The Curse of Rhodes, semi-pornographic fun for the whole family. I'd say he earned it.]]Robert Rodat was the screenwriter for the World War II film Saving Private Ryan. Homage is paid to this movie in Homeward Bound when a number of characters watch a movie about the Race Invasion of Tosev 3 called Rescuing Private Renfall. Coincidentally, Homeward Bound also features a cameo appearance by Matt Damon, who played the title character in Saving Private Ryan. Gene Roddenberry Gene Roddenberry was the original creator of the successful science fiction franchise Star Trek. Among the original characters Roddenberry created for this franchise is Nyota Uhura, who was played by Nichelle Nicholls from 1966 to 1991. In Homeward Bound, a character matching Uhura's description is given the name Nicole Nicholls. Also, the Starfleet to which most Star Trek protagonists belong has a set of protocols for establishing relations with alien species which are referred to as First Contact procedures. First Contact was even the title of a feature length Star Trek film detailing, among other things, the first visit to Earth by an extraterrestrial species. The title of the novel Second Contact may be an invocation of this. The short work "Half the Battle" was first published in Stardate, a magazine that served as a resource for science fiction role playing games, with an emphasis on the Star Trek RPG. "Half the Battle" incorporates a few references to Star Trek, as a post apocalyptic society sets about reclaiming technology. At the end, the society has built a starship based, implicitly, on designs from a work of Star Trek fan fiction. On the ship's maiden voyage, the commander orders Warp 3, musing that the ship won't go so boldly yet. Will Rogers , so lord it over your friends. After all, an ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.]]The fate of journalist Will Rogers in the Southern Victory timeline is alluded to in The Victorious Opposition when one of his signature catchphrases is seen as a popular quotation throughout North America: "All I know is what I read in the papers." In the novel Joe Steele, Roger's quote that "I am not a member of any organized political party, I am a Democrat" is recalled by reporter Charlie Sullivan while covering the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. Sullivan was reflecting on the chaotic mass of delegates and reporters at the convention. Shortly after, Sullivan also thought that the two-thirds rule added to the disorder by making it difficult to chose the Party's Presidential nominee.Joe Steele, pgs. 5-6, HC. William Shakespeare Main Article: Shakespearean References in Turtledove's Work Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg is a prolific and innovative director and producer of films. This includes his 1993 adaptation of the novel Jurassic Park, about dinosaurs being resurrected by modern science. In "Before the Beginning", we learn that time-viewer videos of raptor behavior in Utah were even more exciting than Spielberg's film. Tom Stoppard , whom Turtledove seems quite certain would have earned Shakespeare's admiration]]Tom Stoppard is the author of, among other things, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. A performance of this play is the central plot device of the short story "We Haven't Got There Yet," the title of which is taken from a line of the play's dialogue. Stoppard returned to the bardolatrous scene in 1998 when he and Marc Norman wrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love. One scene of that movie shows Shakespeare working on a draft of a play tentatively titled Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. Turtledove's 2007 novella "Avalon" includes a memorable character who is both named Ethel and a pirate's daughter. The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe, Larry, and Shemp," among other lineups. In Hitler's War, while fleeing the Balmoral-Osborne Hotel de Luxe in Marianske Lazne, Czechoslovakia during a German bombardment of the town in September 1938, Peggy Druce observes two men near the front desk punching and kicking each other and poking one another in the eye, and is reminded of a Three Stooges two-reeler. One of the men is a Czech, the other a German. The Universal Monsters Turtledove has invoked directly or indirectly several of the monster movies produced by Universal Studios. Bela Lugosi and his famous alter ego Dracula are referenced several times throughout the The War That Came Early. In "Shtetl Days", Veit Harlan has an epiphany after watching Frankenstein. Lon Chaney's turn as The Phantom of the Opera is referenced directly in The Man With the Iron Heart and indirectly in Southern Victory (see Gaston Leroux, above). While many of these films were based on novels, Turtledove's characters appear far more familiar with the film versions. Lope de Vega : in Turtledove's hands, just a bit of a star-f*cker]]Lope de Vega is one of two alternating POV characters in Ruled Britannia, along with William Shakespeare. During the course of the novel, Vega is seen working on two plays, La Dama Boba and El Mejor Mozo de España, which is performed live at one point in the book. Both plays were written by Lope de Vega in OTL, although years later than in the novel. The first one is a romantic comedy and the second a nationalist historical piece that, despite being named after King Ferdinand II of Aragon, actually lionises Queen Isabella I of Castile. In a way, both reflect on aspects of Lope de Vega's role in the novel. The first because Lope pursues selfish romantic interests and has to deal with a useless servant like many characters in the play's genre. The second because he is a member of the Spanish occupation army in England who keeps the country under another Queen Isabella, and oversees Shakespeare's crafting of a similarly lionising play for a Spanish king, King Philip, only to discover later that Shakespeare has been secretly writing another lionising, nationalistic play about a queen of his own country's past, ''Boudicca''. At one point, de Vega, who is a fluent though not a native speaker of English, contributes four iambs to Shakespeare's King Philip, and Shakespeare is inspired to create the fifth and add the line to the existing script. Maurine Dallas Watkins Maurine Dallas Watkins was a journalist with the Chicago Tribune in the 1920s. During that time, she covered the murder trials of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Sheriff Annan. Both women were convicted. Watkins used these trials as inspiration for her play, Chicago (also known as Roxie Hart), which was adapted into a musical in the 1970s. In the novel Joe Steele, Turtledove directly references the Gaertner trial by making his Americanized version of Andrey Vyshinsky one of the prosecutors in the matter. He also notes that one of the reporters, implicitly Watkins, wrote a play based on the trial.Joe Steele. Matthew Weiner Matthew Weiner is the creator the cable series Mad Men, about the employees of an advertising agency in the 1960s. In the short story "The Eighth-Grade History Class Visits the Hebrew Home for the Aging", Anne Berkowitz notes that in a black-and-white photograph, her late husband looks Mad Men-y in a suit. Orson Welles thumb|150px|Yes, I'm the same man who will one day sell you wine and peas. Just remember me as I am now--Turtledove does.George Orson Welles (1915-1985) was an American actor known for his cinema films including Citizen Kane (1941) and Falstaff (1965). Prior to that, he broadcast an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds over the radio in October 1938. So realistic was the acting in this play about Martians attacking the United States, that audiences tuning in and catching snippets out of context, believed that a real invasion was occurring on a news program. The legends surrounding this broadcast have likely been exaggerated in the degree of how many people listened and what they believed; it is more probable that they took the enemy as very real Nazis rather than make-believe space monsters. The Worldwar series' point of divergence comes when an actual alien invasion occurs just four years after Welles' broadcast. Sam Yeager references Welles' play and tells Mutt Daniels that "The Martians have landed, for real this time."In the Balance, pg. 47-8. References Category:Trivia